1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to an image capture apparatus and method for obtaining an image of a subject.
2. Related Art
An image capture apparatus, such as a digital camera or a camcorder, supports scene modes in which an image capture mode is automatically set according to the status of a subject or surroundings thereof and an image is captured according to the set image capture mode. In this case, the image capture apparatus has an image processing algorithm for each scene mode such that when one of the scene modes is set, an image is processed according to an algorithm corresponding to the set scene mode. For example, in a portrait mode, the face of a subject is recognized through a facial recognition function to capture an image of a smiling face. In a sports mode, shutter speed is increased to correctly capture an image of a moving subject.
In capturing an image, the quantity of light around a subject may be an important factor affecting the quality of the image. That is, if the quantity of light is not sufficient, an image has insufficient brightness with the result that it may be difficult to distinguish between a subject and the surroundings thereof. For this reason, it may be necessary to obtain appropriate quantity of light according to contents to be expressed through the image. However, it may be difficult to obtain sufficient quantity of light according to the surroundings of the subject. In this case, desired brightness of the image is not obtained due to insufficient quantity of light.
In a digital type image capture apparatus, an ISO value indicating the sensitivity of a charge-coupled device is increased to compensate for the insufficient quantity of light. However, if the ISO value is excessively increased, the amount of noise in the image is increased together with the increase of brightness, which deteriorates the quality of the resulting image. Even in a case in which a shutter speed value is increased (i.e. shutter speed is lowered) to obtain a much greater quantity of light, shaking of the image capture apparatus due to the slow shutter speed is reflected in the image, such that the resulting image may be blurred.